By Chris Eger

The political divide over gun policy yawned Monday night as President Donald Trump announced his pick to replace Justice Anthony Kennedy on the nation’s high court.
In a ceremony at the White House, Trump introduced Judge Brett Kavanaugh, currently on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the key D.C. Circuit, as his nomination to fill the seat opened on the nine-justice panel with Kennedy’s planned retirement. Described as a “brilliant jurist with impeccable legal credentials” by the White House, since his confirmation to the federal bench in 2006 Kavanaugh has penned more than 300 decisions, 11 of which have been upheld by the Supreme Court. A Yale Law graduate, he served as on the Office of Independent Counsel under Ken Starr investigating President Clinton’s administration and later as a staffer to President George W. Bush.
But it was the subject of Kavanaugh’s record of interpretation of the Second Amendment that drew quick attention. In 2011, he dissented from the majority in the D.C. Circuit’s ruling on Heller II, which challenged the city’s prohibition on “assault weapons,” saying in part, “In my judgment, both D.C.’s ban on semi-automatic rifles and its gun registration requirement are unconstitutional under Heller.” The jurist went on to